1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved receipt issuing method and an improved receipt printer. More specifically, the present invention relates to a receipt issuing method and a receipt printer capable of smoothly performing a receipt issuing operation even if a print head which operates relatively slow is employed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, the types of receipt printers for business use are roughly divided into a line thermal type employing thermal paper and a dot impact type. Recently, however, as POS (point-of-sales information management) terminals have advanced to multimedia terminals, the possibility of the advancement from conventional monochrome printing to two-color printing employing two-color thermal paper, and further to multicolor printing employing inkjet technique so as to impart a value added to receipt printing has arisen.
However, to print colors on, for example, a two-color thermal paper sheet, it is normally necessary to approximately double thermal energy and to lengthen heating time for heating a thermal paper sheet. As a result, it is necessary to decrease printing speed. In addition, if multicolor is realized by means of the inkjet technique, the problem of slow printing speed remains.
On the other hand, in the field of receipt printers each employing a print head capable of printing at relatively a high speed, Japanese Patent Unexamined Application Publication No. 7-182565 discloses a method and apparatus for reducing time required to issue the next receipt by actuating a print head to print header information on the surface of the next receipt while a final printing position of the present receipt is fed up to the position of a cutter to accelerate a receipt issuing operation.
This method and apparatus can reduce the time required to perform the receipt issuing operation because it is unnecessary to print the header information and it is instead possible to instantly print dealing information during the next receipt issuing processing.
However, even if the technique disclosed in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Application Publication No. 7-182565 is applied to an inkjet or thermal receipt printer, it is difficult to reduce the overall time required to perform receipt issuing operations for the following reason. In the inkjet or thermal receipt printer, the operation of the print head itself is slow. Due to this, if the header information is printed on a receipt while the receipt is fed out, it is required to decrease a receipt feeding speed. This disadvantageously increases time required to output a receipt, thereby deteriorating overall operation efficiency.
This disadvantage becomes more conspicuous if a lower-speed print head is used. Thus, it is quite a serious obstacle if two-color printing or multicolor printing is conducted by the inkjet or thermal receipt printer.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a receipt issuing method and a receipt printer capable of solving the conventional disadvantages, and particularly enabling a receipt issuing operation to be smoothly performed even if it takes relatively long time to print header information, such as a logo, on each receipt on the assumption that two-color printing or multicolor printing is frequently used in a stamp logo portion in which the logo of a shop or a chain store is printed.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a receipt issuing method for issuing a receipt comprising the steps of: printing dealing information with a print head while feeding a receipt sheet in forward direction with a transporter; feeding said receipt sheet in the forward direction with said transporter until an end of said receipt reaches about a cutter; cutting the receipt sheet with said cutter to make a cutoff portion of said receipt sheet into said receipt; feeding said receipt sheet in reverse direction with said transporter until a top of said receipt sheet reaches about said print head; and printing header information with said print head while feeding said receipt sheet in the forward direction with said transporter.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a receipt issuing method for issuing a receipt comprising the steps of: printing dealing information with a print head while feeding a receipt sheet in forward direction with a transporter; feeding said receipt sheet in the forward direction with said transporter until an end of said receipt reaches about a manual cutter; detecting whether or not the receipt sheet has cut with said manual cutter to make a cutoff portion of said receipt sheet into said receipt; if it is detected that the receipt sheet has cut, feeding said receipt sheet in reverse direction with said transporter until a top of said receipt sheet reaches about said print head; and printing header information with said print head while feeding said receipt sheet in the forward direction with said transporter.